This not very subtle remake of Rosemary's
Baby (1968) is almost a good movie, but it
is let down fatally in some crucial areas. The premise is simple enough, Johnny
Depp is an astronaut who lose contact with Earth
for two minutes while on a routine shuttle
mission. Once back on land, strange things start
happening.
The middle hour of the film is
chilling and absorbing, with Charlize Theron
looking suitably frazzled and spooked as Depp's
pregnant wife, while Depp himself maintains the
same 'am I possessed, or not?' expression
throughout. Some of the scenes are fantastically
spine tingling (especially when Theron is
wandering around the creepy public storage
building).
A lot of movies are let down by
poor endings. The Astronaut's Wife never takes
off because the first 20 minutes are terrible.
The over acting during this period is startling,
Theron already looks haunted (even though nothing
has happened yet), and the portrayal of NASA is
ridiculous. Depp is supposed to have been missing
for only two minutes yet somehow during this
period, the TV manage to run a news story and
NASA manage to find the time to send an agent
around to see Theron!
The supporting characters are
all two dimensional (although it is refreshing to
see Clea Duvall NOT playing a gothic teenage
outcast for once) while the ending is
anticlimactic (and very presumptuously sets the
scene for a sequel).
In summary, spooky but
unsatisfying.
|